Business 10th Edition by Ferrell,Geoffrey Hirt,Linda Ferrell

Exercise 23

Facebook Praised for Tackling Carbon Emissions
It's no secret that Facebook and Google are competitors, particularly when it comes to advertising. Both companies have a wide global reach and the ability to segment the market. However, there is one area in which Facebook performs better than Google: its carbon footprint. Facebook's yearly carbon emissions amount to approximately 285,000 metric tons per year compared to Google's 1.5 million.
As concern for the planet increases, consumers are demanding that companies become more sustainable. Therefore, the fact that Facebook is more carbon-efficient than competitors places it at an advantage. Greenpeace has praised the company for its transparency after Facebook released a detailed report describing its carbon footprint. In the report, Facebook announced its goals of getting 25 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2015. This report provided information about Facebook's goals and data centers as well as the carbon footprint from the company's more than 90 million Facebook users.
So how much energy does each user's Facebook use emit? Facebook has calculated that each user's annual use is equivalent to the carbon footprint of a medium latte. Unfortunately, with more than 900 million users, this adds up significantly. And while the firm plans to create a hydropowered data center in Sweden, other expansions will likely increase its carbon emissions in the short term. Despite these downsides, Facebook's transparency has earned it accolades from stakeholders-including environmental groups. 17
Do you feel that Facebook's sustainability initiatives will give it an edge over Google?